Museum of Fine Arts in Nice

Brief information

The Museum of Fine Arts in Nice is housed in a palace whose intended purpose changed even before construction was completed. Building began in 1878 for Princess Elizaveta Kochubey as a Neo-Renaissance mansion; later, the unfinished building was bought by the American industrialist James Thompson, who brought its appearance into line with his own taste. In 1925, the city acquired this private house for a museum, which opened here in 1928.

This change of purpose matters when visiting: the museum does not hide its palatial shell, but works within it. The facades in the style of Genoese Mannerism and the roof are listed as a historic monument, so the building itself is not merely a container for the collection. The name of Jules Chéret recalls another turn: the museum is named after the artist and graphic designer, a founder of the modern poster who died in Nice, and it preserves an important collection of his works.

What to notice first

It makes sense to view the museum as a former home adapted for a sequential presentation of art. The ground floor is organized around the old painting rooms: two rooms are devoted to works of the 17th and 18th centuries, and a third to masters of the Van Loo family. The large gallery shifts attention to 19th-century Salon painting, while its exit into the winter garden links painting with sculpture: Auguste Rodin’s “The Bronze Age” is located there.

The transition between floors also works as part of the exhibition. Posters by Jules Chéret are displayed along the staircase, and they are changed every three months; the staircase becomes not a pause between rooms, but a place where the museum’s connection with poster art is visible. On the upper floor, one can compare painting from the 19th and early 20th centuries with a separate Chéret room and a Raoul Dufy room. In this way, the palace layout helps visitors read the collection not as a list of names, but as a sequence of rooms with different artistic periods.